1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns a fundus image processor for electronic inputting and processing of fundus images.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, there has been a tendency to replace photographs taken on silver halide film by electronic images. This is true not only in the ophthalmological field, but also where electronic images offer particular advantages such as periodic health check-ups or for examining the three-dimensional structure of a fundus. Electronic images are thus making progressive inroads, initially in those fields where it would be difficult to perform the task at hand without them.
However, at the current time, electronic image processing systems which are economically competitive give poorer images than silver halide photographs. In those fields which require accurate diagnosis, one way of dealing with this problem would be to take a silver halide photograph on film, and convert it to an electronic image for storage purposes.
In group health check-ups and other situations wherein extreme precision is not required, an electronic image of the fundus could be obtained directly and used as it is. In such a case, if all the images were electronic images, comparisons could be made with previous images. However, many of the records are still on silver halide film, and it is necessary to convert earlier images to electronic images with the aid of a video camera or a linear scanner.
The need for this type of conversion may be expected to continue for some time. As the operator must take care to distinguish between the front, back, top and bottom of a slide film, and between images for the left and right eye, however, the procedure is troublesome, and it sometimes led to the inputting of incorrect images.